A South African supplier is calling on UK retailers to bring more to the party when it comes to the concept of partnership.
Gerrit Booyens, chief executive of Citrus SA, told the Journal there needs to be a greater level of sharing of information, particularly when it comes to consumer needs.
He said there also needs to be a general shift in the concept of the supply chain to turn it into a channel to create better visibility at all stages. “You can look down a channel, but not a chain, the links get in the way.
“Transparency is vital and we can achieve that through better application of technology.
“We all need to work together and we want to be the preferred supplier of citrus to the UK market.
“Our job is to make more money for the retailers, so what we need to know is, what must we be doing together to have our citrus make them more money.”
One way of achieving that would be through a better understanding of UK consumers’ needs flowing back down the supply channel. “We need our retail partners to communicate the consumers needs to us.
“We want people to be going into stores and not just buying oranges, but actually looking for South African oranges, and to do that, we need to work together,” Booyens said.
